Taft Personal Injury Attorney

Taft finished 1st of 74, the worst position, on the composite crash measure the Office of Traffic Safety computed for small California cities in 2023 (OTS 2023). A Taft personal injury attorney has to read that 1st-place finish against the raw counts, because 40 people were hurt or killed on Taft roads that year, and a few late-night crashes can swing a small city’s position. Below are the OTS rows behind the ranking, the Kern Street, Highway 119 and Center Street locations the city has flagged, and the route a claim takes from the Taft Police report to a courtroom in Bakersfield.

In those rows, 1st is worst. Two victims of drinking drivers under 21 put the city at the top of that line, and six hit-and-run crashes topped another. For a town of 6,995 residents (Census 2025 estimate), these are small counts, but they point the same way: alcohol, darkness and drivers who leave the scene. One more row needs care: Taft officers made 120 DUI arrests, 72nd of 74 on a scale where 1st means the fewest arrests, so the number speaks to how hard police are working the problem.

Hit-and-runs, rankings and oil-field trucks

A car hit me outside a Kern Street bar and drove off. Is there any way to be paid?

Usually. When the car is never traced, the uninsured motorist section of your own auto policy normally pays, but only if Taft Police heard about the hit-and-run quickly. With six hit-and-run injury crashes in 2023, more than any comparable city, Taft residents should check that line of their auto policy now.

Does the 1st-of-74 ranking help my claim?

Not directly. OTS weighs the city against others of similar size and daily traffic, and with 40 victims each case moves the result. Liability for your Kern Street or Highway 119 crash still has to be shown through the officer’s report, eyewitnesses and photographs.

An oil-field service truck ran a stop sign on Gardner Field Road. Who is responsible?

A driver on the job usually makes the employer answerable for his negligence. In the surrounding oil fields, the operator, the contractor that employed the driver and the company that owns the truck can be three different businesses, and each may have insurance.

Can I file my injury case in Taft?

The Kern County Superior Court’s current location list shows no courthouse in town (court locations). So a resident whose damages exceed $35,000 files the complaint 32 miles away, at the Metropolitan Justice Building downtown.

The plan’s high-injury locations

Engineers preparing the city’s June 2022 safety plan, which Kern COG now hosts, reviewed 394 collisions from 2015 through 2019 on city streets and on Highways 33 and 119 inside town, of which 20 killed or badly hurt someone (Taft LRSP). Failing to yield caused 28% of the 394, illegal or careless turns 19%, and impaired drivers 13%.

Kern Street downtown

Highway 33 becomes Kern Street as it crosses downtown, and the stretch from Wade Avenue to Wood Street tops the corridor list. Nine of its 22 crashes were broadsides, on a route where drivers cross the highway at 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Streets and at Cascade Place, each of them a listed intersection. Where the same highway is signed West Side Highway, at Hovey Hills Road, a car left the road and struck an object with grave results.

Taft Highway and Gardner Field Road

Highway 119 arrives from Bakersfield as Taft Highway and ends at Highway 33, a junction the plan marks for a serious crash. The Gardner Field Road and Main Street intersection is listed too, as is Gardner Field Road from Industrial Way to Gas Company Road. They serve the industrial side of a town ringed by the Midway-Sunset, Elk Hills, Buena Vista and Belridge oil fields (Wikipedia).

Center Street and 10th Street

Center Street at South 10th had only four crashes in five years, but one of them seriously injured a pedestrian, and that severity earned the corner its second-place score.

Watch out: Vehicle-pedestrian crashes made up 35% of the deaths and severe injuries in the city’s five-year study. After a downtown pedestrian injury, expect the driver’s carrier to argue that you walked out against traffic. Crosswalk paint, the streetlight at that corner and any storefront camera on Center or Kern Street are what answer it.

Away from intersections, the plan found that overturned vehicles were the most common type of serious crash on Taft’s road segments.

First steps after a crash in town

1. Before leaving Kern Street or a shoulder on 119, ask whether Taft Police or the CHP is writing the report, and get its number.
2. If the other car fled, call Taft Police that day and open an uninsured motorist claim with your insurer.
3. Walk the block on Center or Kern Street and write down every storefront camera facing the spot.
4. Keep the ambulance run sheet and every chart from Kern Medical.
5. Hold off on a recorded call with the other side’s adjuster until your Kern Medical diagnosis is clear.

Records, treatment and transit

A small department handles Taft’s streets: 16 sworn officers and 12 civilians, plus the city’s own jail. Crashes on Kern Street and the downtown grid are its reports; on 33 or 119 beyond the city limits, the California Highway Patrol generally investigates, so confirm at the scene whose report number you were given.

The ride to trauma care is long. Kern Medical in Bakersfield, about 32 miles away, is the adult Level II trauma center that Kern County’s state designation list names (EMSA), and the ambulance run sheet for that trip is part of the medical record an insurer will review.

Passengers hurt aboard a Taft-Maricopa Area Transit bus, or on Kern Transit’s run to Bakersfield, are dealing with a public operator. Their written claim is due no later than six months after the injury (Government Code §911.2), and that half-year window also governs if a State-owned stretch of 33 or 119, or a City of Taft street such as Center, was itself unsafe.

Suing the drunk or careless motorist personally allows more time, generally two years (CCP §335.1), and a jury that thinks a Center Street pedestrian was 30% to blame awards the remaining 70% (CACI 405). West-side residents sometimes expect a local hearing, but Kern’s civil division assigns every claim over $35,000 to Truxtun Avenue in Bakersfield, at the Metropolitan Justice Building, number 1215 (Kern Superior Court).

Representing Taft residents and oil-field workers

We represent people who live in Taft, Taft College students, oil-field crews and travelers on Highways 33 and 119. When we investigate a crash here, we start by pulling the police or CHP report, comparing the location with the city’s ranked corridors and asking Kern Street businesses to save their video.

The cases we handle for people hurt in Taft follow the OTS table above, starting with alcohol and hit-and-run crashes:

• Car accident claims against drinking drivers, including those under 21
• Hit-and-run claims paid through your own UM benefits
• Pedestrian injuries at corners like 10th and Center
• Motorcycle crashes on 33 and 119
• Crashes involving trucks headed to Midway-Sunset, Elk Hills or Buena Vista
• Injuries aboard Taft-Maricopa Area Transit buses
• Wrongful death actions for surviving spouses, parents and children

Because the town sits 32 miles from Bakersfield, our representatives drive out to meet clients at home or visit them at Kern Medical. Talking with a Taft car accident attorney from our office is free, and our fee comes only from what we recover for you. Our number is (888) 952-2952. If a phone call is hard to fit around an oil-field shift, the online case evaluator is open at any hour.

Nothing here is legal advice; the rankings, corridors and deadlines are presented as general background.

Sources

1. OTS 2023: Taft — OTS
2. Taft LRSP (2022) — Kern COG
3. Vintage 2025 estimates — Census
4. Taft — Wikipedia
5. Trauma centers (2025) — EMSA
6. Civil division — Kern court
7. Court locations — Kern court
8. Government Code §911.2 — Legislature
9. CCP §335.1 — Legislature
10. CACI 405 — Justia